The SBU has opened a new case against Saldo, the Gauleiter of the Kherson region
The Security Service of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General have served charges in absentia against Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Russian Federation’s occupation administration on the left bank of the Kherson region, and two of his accomplices for the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied city of Kherson to Crimea.
According to the investigation, on October 7, 2022, the suspects organized the transport of students from the Kherson Professional Shipbuilding Lyceum to so-called “sanatoriums” on the occupied peninsula. The children were taken by bus to a river port, ferried by boat to the left bank of the Kherson region, and from there transported to Crimea. Saldo involved the school’s deputy director, Viktor Loginov, who entered fictitious data into the documentation to conceal the transport, and teacher Mykola Dolzhenko, who accompanied the children throughout the entire journey.
The Security Service of Ukraine emphasizes that such actions constitute a direct violation of Article 49 of the Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits the forcible transfer of persons with protected status from occupied territory. Saldo, Loginova, and Dolzhenko have been notified in absentia of their status as suspects in the commission of war crimes committed by a group of individuals acting in concert. Measures are currently underway to bring the suspects to justice.
Source: Security Service of Ukraine.
In January 2026, the Security Service of Ukraine announced another set of charges against Volodymyr Saldo, the so-called “head” of the Kherson region’s occupation administration, specifically for creating an occupation battalion.
A Ukrainian court sentenced the former mayor of Kherson, Volodymyr Saldo, to 15 years in prison for organizing a sham referendum on the annexation of the Kherson region to Russia. In addition to his prison sentence, the convicted man will forfeit all his personal property and will be barred from holding leadership positions for 15 years.
